As it now stands, the President’s stump speech features a backward-looking message at its core. Obama trumpets “more than 2 million jobs in the private sector” that have been created in the last 15 months. At a recent speech in Ohio he dismissed May’s bad jobs numbers as “bumps on the road to recovery.” In Greenberg’s estimation, this is an error on par with President Obama’s midterm election pitch, which described the nation as a car that had just gotten out of a ditch that Republicans drove into in the first place. The metaphor didn’t work, Greenberg explained in a recent memo, because “people thought they were still in the ditch.”

The usual suspects -- incompetent Ivy League faculty lounge refugees on Obama's revolving-door team of economic advisors and his campaign team -- seem to be agreeing with Greenburg that this "Mission Accomplished" approach is folly:

President Obama’s own strategists agree — but only in part. New projections of tepid economic growth under 3%, and unemployment over 8.5%, have all but erased hopes that Obama can run for reelection as the guy who saved America from the worst economic crises since the Great Depression. It’s not a convincing message when four out of five Americans still rate the economy as “poor.”

Irrespective of the flailing going on over at Team Obama Headquarters, even marginally referring to any policy of his rescuing the economy represents pure delusional folly. Going near that hoary old bromide of two million jobs "saved or created" is kind of like firmly grasping the to secondary poles of a 25 KV substation transformer -- bound to be a shocking experience.

This is especially true when you consider that fully 45% of these two million so-called new jobs were created in the state of Texas:

Richard Fisher, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, dropped by our offices this week and relayed a remarkable fact: Some 37% of all net new American jobs since the recovery began were created in Texas. Mr. Fisher’s study is a lesson in what works in economic policy—and it is worth pondering in the current 1.8% growth moment.

Using Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, Dallas Fed economists looked at state-by-state employment changes since June 2009, when the recession ended. Texas added 265,300 net jobs, out of the 722,200 nationwide, and by far outpaced every other state. New York was second with 98,200, Pennsylvania added 93,000, and it falls off from there. Nine states created fewer than 10,000 jobs, while Maine, Hawaii, Delaware and Wyoming created fewer than 1,000. Eighteen states have lost jobs since the recovery began.

The data are even more notable because they’re calculated on a “sum of states” basis, which the BLS does not use because they can have sampling errors. Using straight nonfarm payroll employment, Texas accounts for 45% of net U.S. job creation. Modesty is not typically considered a Texas virtue, but the results speak for themselves.

Texas is also among the few states that are home to more jobs than when the recession began in December 2007. The others are North Dakota, Alaska and the District of Columbia. If that last one sounds like an outlier at first, remember the government boom of the Obama era, which has helped loft D.C. payrolls 18,000 jobs above the pre-crisis status quo. Even so, Texas is up 30,800.

Interesting factoid and one you should slip into your ammo bag for those upcoming debates with the nouveau bitter clingers, the die-hard Disciples of The Boy King. It will be interesting to see the scales drop from their eyes when that data is presented to them -- especially if Texas governor Rick Perry gets into the race.

This is a time when the president needs to find his inner Bill Clinton, and feel Americans’ pain. If he wants to be one of the few presidents to win reelection in a stagnant economy, he’ll have to devote less time to defending past policies, like the auto bailout, and more to offering specific solutions to help people get back to work. Think a 21st century version of FDR’s fireside chats.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said that President Obama believes taxes on small businesses across the country must rise in order to prevent a general reduction in the overall size of government programs. Geithner added that the administration seeks to raise taxes on all individuals earning $250,000 per year or more, and this would necessarily include small business owners who file as individuals.

It's 2011, fercrissakes, and after almost three years of nothing but bad news, stagnating growth, and steadily-UN-improving unemployment Geithner and his boss still don't get it. So, given they have about 15 months to go, its unlikely that anything short of a miracle will cause a turnaround.

But Hopey-Changey is still out there giving those clueless speeches and makin' all that jive talk. Like Ramirez' cartoon above, you can put a dress and lipstick on a pig but, in the long run, it's still a pig.

7 comments:

"I'm the greatest President that ever lived, and I've surrounded myself with the smartest socialists that our Universities could spare. It's you selfish fat cats out there that are the problem, and I'm coming after your money ... all of it. Michelle's planning another trip and we need it. I have a few more regulations for you big evil corporations too."

There you go! See? A post with substance, didn't think you could do it but way to go Sparky!

Quite right, Obama's job creation record is dismal, he didn't go anywhere near far enough with the stimulus package and he should have made some "cram down" legislation to help the housing market and more importantly people keep their homes.

I am going to let this comment stick -- not because you seem to agree with me nor because you bag on Obama but because you (also) have something to say. You are more than welcome to post comment here if you keep it civil and moderate the profanity. Also, it would be appreciated if you stayed away from the liberal crutch of calling everyone a racist because they don't like what Obama is doing.

Of the candidates running for the GOP nomination, Herman Cain is in my top three and I would have no problem working very hard for his campaign were he the nominee. Like MLK, I firmly believe in content of character rather than color of skin. Racism is a blatant waste of time and energy.

If you disagree with what I post, please let me know -- but please use the tone and demeanor of this comment. As I said in one of my posts, I have had trolls -- er -- commenters -- who have disagreed with me in the past, yet we have found enough common ground to have a civil debate.

(Also, there's no reason why we cannot have good-natured fun with each other, either.)

That said, the tone of this blog is occasioned by my utter frustration with a man who has obvious talent but is lazy and largely fulfills his responsibilities as POTUS by "phoning it in". He could have been so much more to those who voted for him; truly more than the avatar into which others poured their hopes and dreams.

The irony of his incompetence is that he has literally ruined it for other black POTUS aspirants for years to come.

Glee is definately my favorite sitcom..Cool article here by the way. All of you can watch Glee episodes online here. There's no sign up fees nor surveys either. You can watch other sitcoms and animes too. They have a list of all Glee episodes. I mean where else can you watch Glee online for free? Spread the word and God Bless.